february2021 - 24

Apprenticeships " in June of 2017 to promote
the development of third-party apprenticeship
programs.
As part of that EO, in May 2018, the Task Force on
Apprenticeship produced its final report providing recommendations on establishing IndustryRecognized Apprenticeship Programs (IRAPs),
designed to provide organizations more tools to
create quality apprenticeship programs. The U.S.
Department of Labor issued a final 300-page rule
that established a system for advancing the development of high-quality IRAPs.
" It was really important that this task force
produced something that could be used whether you have half a million employees or you are
mom-and-pop vendors so that everyone can have
this opportunity no matter where you stand,
because everybody's hurting [and] everybody
needs technicians, " says Jackson of the TMC
Technician Apprenticeship Standards. " A lot of
companies don't have the ability to read that
300-page document. "
The task force sought a way to take the 300-page
ruling and make it into something that anybody
could pick up and use immediately to help their
shop and their company without sacrificing quality, Jackson explains.
" You don't want a situation where a technician
[apprentice] is just a 'check the box' situation,
because it's not fair to the apprentice, they're not
getting quality [training], and safety-wise, you
don't want anyone getting hurt, " Jackson says.
As part of the collaborative development of the
standards, George Arrants, vice president of the

24 Fleet Maintenance | February 2021

»Launched in March 2019, the Noregon Education Program is now nationwide
with nearly 40 participating schools. The Education Program provides students
with the technology and resources used in the industry today.
Photo courtesy of Noregon Systems

" It was really important that this task force
produced something that could be used
whether you have half a million employees
or you are mom-and-pop vendors so that
everyone can have this opportunity no matter
where you stand, because everybody's hurting
[and] everybody needs technicians. "
Arica Jackson, automotive specialist at UPS and the TMC
Technician Apprenticeship Standards Task Force Chair

ASE Education Foundation, recommended the task
force fold in like-parameters of a previous industry internship program called the Automotive
Youth Education Systems (AYES).
" What we're doing is taking what we learned in
AYES and we're trying to bring the intern/mentor
training up to the 21st century, " Arrants says.
The AYES initiative worked with high school
programs that met national accreditation requirements to create internships, Arrants explains.

The AYES program worked to educate junior
year high school students throughout the school
year on industry employment opportunities.
Between the students' junior and senior year,
students would participate in a paid summer
internship with a workplace mentor at a local
participating dealership. After an evaluation at
the end of the summer, if the student did well and
was interested, they could work part-time at the
shop with their mentor throughout the senior year.

february2021

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